Starting to Get A Little Paranoid…

First my site goes splat over at Yahoo right after I get it all nice, mostly the way I want it, but right before I get a complete backup. So I move it over to BlueHost and make sure I have a backup. Suddenly they have a major internet pipeline that services them go down, causing my site to be unavailable to me for about 2-3 hours, either to look at or restore if need be. (Supposedly 85-90% of the rest of the world still had access according to tech support – just not me, so having a backup didn’t make a difference this time…!)

If I were a suspicious person, I’d either think someone was out to get my site or my site suffers from Typhoid Mary syndrome – killing hosting servers/hardware right and left.

Hmmmm.

BWAHAHAHAAAAHA (Okay, now that’s out of my system, back to thinking of what else to post that the internet can kill at its leisure…)

Technorati Tags: Computers, Hosting, Technology, WordPress

Epson America – More Annoying Than Ever

I just got an email notification from one of my favorite online ink cartridge retailers that they will be discontinuing most, if not all of their Epson compatible inkjet cartridges.

It appears Seiko Epson has been busy suing approx 24 makers of compatible cartridges pretty much saying that unless these companies are willing to pay for a license to use Epson technology – which would of course increase the cost and thus the price of compatible cartridges making them no better deal than the originals – then Epson is going to find a way to force them out of business to try to boost their own bottom line which has gone into the red recently.

Epson’s complained that they don’t make any money on actually selling printers and need to make all their money on the after-market cartridges and refilling used ones.  Note: I find that funny as none of my cartridges for either my CX88 or CX5800F are refillable and Epson has made them such that if you accidentally pull out one and try to use it again, it’s ruined and won’t work anymore, no matter how much ink is left in it.  Not to mention, Epson just got class-action sued for making their own cartridges trigger the “empty” signal long before they really are… (Detect a pattern there?)

It seems to me that the money they’ve spent suing these people (no doubt contributing to the loss they posted) would have been better spent on developing lower cost cartridges in order to compete better and make customers happy rather than pulling the rug out from people already using their printers.

Epson’s printer sales have dropped due to miscalculating the number of people wanting stand-alone printers versus multifunction units and they say they’ll have to sell current inventory at a loss in order to “realign” their inventory to the market. So, it seems, we consumers have to “fix” their business model by paying even more for supplies from only one source – them. Yeeesh.

The only reason I bought Epson this last time was they have separate cartridges for Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, (and Black) so I didn’t have to throw away 2 colors when the 3rd ran out (as you do in brands that have all 3 “colors” in 1).  Another reason I went with Epson was there were alternatives to their exorbitantly priced “brand” name cartridges. However, now that that’s changing and places like Office Max and Walgreen’s refill cartridges from brands like HP with quality ink, I definitely will probably switch printer brands as refillable cartridges are more ecologically-sound anyway besides less expensive than what Epson will be offering. (With NO competition, their ultimate goal, I can just imagine what price heights their own cartridges would reach.)

So I guess Epson won’t have to worry about losing money on selling me my next printer as I won’t be buying another given their latest business practices.

Technorati Tags: Computers, Technology

APPLE MACBOOK AIR – Now I Call THAT a Laptop!

Back in the day I used to sell computers. Imagine, then, when a computer that weighed over 14lbs was called “portable”! (First, the good old Kaypro with its CP/M operating system and then came the Compaq with its IBM compatibility – they called them “transportable” – luggable was closer to accurate, on a GOOD day.)

So when I saw the commercial for the new Apple MacBook Air, I thought, “Finally, a computer that actually is worthy of the name laptop!” It was so thin, you almost couldn’t see it. LOL Now THAT’s what I call portable.

Just check out these specs:

- .16 to .75-inch thickness on top
- 12.8 x 8.94 inches
- 3 lbs
- 5 hours of battery life with everything running

- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor at 1.6 or 1.8GHz
- 800MHz frontside bus.
- 2GB RAM 667MHz DDR2 standard.

- 13.3-inch screen, LED backlit.
- 1,280 x 800 pixels
- Micro-DVI adapter (for DVI, VGA, composite and S-Video output)
- Intel GMA X3100 Graphics processor with 144MB RAM shared

- 1.8-inch 80GB HD or 64GB Solid State Drive
- Multitouch trackpad with gestures. Pans, zooms, rotates, etc.
- 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1.
- Optional external HD for $99, USB-bus powered.
- Full backlit keyboard.
- One USB 2.0, one audio port, one Micro-DVI

It’s not the cheapest Apple computer by any means, but for anyone who’s toted around a “normal” laptop on a regular basis, the savings in chiropractor’s bills would more than make up for it. Not to mention not having your legs fall asleep all the time from the weight of other “portable” pc’s…

Check out the Apple MacBook Air when you get a chance to see the possibilities of truly portable computing.

For a product tour, watch the video or click here to see the Apple MacBook Air product page.

Technorati Tags: Air, Apple, Computers, Laptops, Mac, MacBook, Notebooks